Soothing sounds

Christine Sherk @CSherkRG

Thursday

Aug 26, 2010 at 12:01 AM

Jan Dial transformed a dry pond and streambed in his front yard into a cascading water feature by following the lay of his land.

Faced with a hillside terrain that drops steeply on the southwest corner of his east Springfield property, Dial “made lemonade with lemons,” he says. Now he and his wife, Donna, enjoy the burbling water as they spend late summer evenings on the front porch, or when they’re inside with windows open.

The sloped landscape is a natural environment for water flow. Dial also sought to create an enticing habitat for frogs. “We have a lot of them around here,” he says.

Dial was going to build the wet stream in the backyard, but then thought better of it when he decided the front’s dry streambed needed redoing.

“It just evolved,” Dial says of the project, which went from the planning stages to a gently cascading water feature in under two months.

“I didn’t work on it eight hours a day,” Dial explains. “But I’d work on it. I would be out here early on moving the rocks piece by piece and then laying the pattern. It wasn’t hard work because I didn’t have to do it. I wanted to.”

Even without any experience in building a water feature, Dial says, he did his research and took his time.

“Really, anyone can do this,” he explains.

Work in progress

Dial checked out several Web sites, including http://forum.doityourself .com; www.pondsolutions.com; and www.familyhandyman.com. Once his plan began taking shape, he went to Jerry’s Home Improvement Center and Lane Forest Products for supplies.

“The local stores have everything you need, and everyone, including the folks at the city, they’re so helpful,” Dial says.

Before digging down, he followed procedures: he had utilities lines marked; he got a city permit for the pump’s electrical work; and he measured the shape of the water feature. “I didn’t do this by the book,” Dial explains. “I picked and chose what I wanted to do for the look I wanted.”

That look entailed an upper, shallow pool from which the water flows down a series of elevated waterfalls into a lower, hidden 50-gallon tank with a submersible pump.

Dial built up the pool area with two layers of concrete blocks, the kind often used for retaining walls, then he spread a pond underlayment before carefully laying out the pond liner. From there, he lined the waterfall path down to the pump area.

Figuring out the head pressure and the type of pump for the water system required calculations.

First, Dial measured the drop in elevation and the length of the stream to determine head pressure. Next, to figure out the correct pump size, Dial measured, in part, the stream’s width and the depth of the water he wanted running over the falls. He settled on a pump flow rated at 10 feet head pressure to supply 1,000 gallons an hour.

Dial also installed a stock tank float valve to maintain the water level in the tank. Water from the lower tank flows through a hidden hose to the upper pool.

For the 120 watts needed to run the pump, he dug an 18-inch deep trench for wiring, and installed an outdoor electrical outlet, which had to pass city inspection.

Finally, he added gravel and rocks of different sizes, and filled the feature with water. The whole project cost Dial about $1,000, but, clearly, it’s worth every pretty penny to him and his wife.

Keeping the flow going

Algae control is an inevitable challenge in pond maintenance thanks to the interaction of sunlight and organic matter, such as tree debris. Ideally, water features are located where they don’t receive more than a few hours of the daily sunlight that encourages algae growth. The shadier, the better.

Home improvement stores carry chemical additives to control algae, but for those bent on chemical-free algae control, it’s important to skim the water surface regularly. An underwater vacuum can come in handy, too, for removing algae.

Dial placed a simple screen over his tank to catch debris and has found little need for skimming yet. He is also open to installing a filtering system if needed.

As for whether or not Dial will keep the pond running through the winter, he’s not sure.

“I’ll just have to see,” he says. “I did build it for the frogs. And I’ve grown so used to the therapeutic sound.”

He demonstrates how moving some of the rocks quickly alters the sound of the water.

“You hear that? You can tune your own waterfall,” he says.

Staff writer Christine Sherk may be contacted at sp.feedback@registerguard.com.

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